Avarice, The Spur Of Industry.

I Say Then, That Belief Is Nothing But A More Vivid, Lively, Forcible, Firm, Steady Conception Of An Object, Than What The Imagination Alone Is Ever Able To Attain. This Variety Of Terms, Which May Seem So Unphilosophical, Is Intended Only To Express That Act Of The Mind, Which Renders Realities, Or What Is Taken For Such, More Present To Us Than Fictions, Causes Them To Weigh More In The Thought, And Gives Them A Superior Influence On The Passions And Imagination.

Men Often Act Knowingly Against Their Interest.

It Is Still Open For Me, As Well As You, To Regulate My Behavior, By My Experience Of Past Events.

A Miracle Is A Violation Of The Laws Of Nature; And As A Firm And Unalterable Experience Has Established These Laws, The Proof Against A Miracle, From The Very Nature Of The Fact, Is As Entire As Any Argument From Experience Can Possibly Be Imagined.

It Is A Great Mortification To The Vanity Of Man, That His Utmost Art And Industry Can Never Equal The Meanest Of Nature's Productions, Either For Beauty Or Value. Art Is Only The Under-workman, And Is Employed To Give A Few Strokes Of Embellishment To Those Pieces, Which Come From The Hand Of The Master.